Still on the loose in Aberdeen

Well last Saturday still found me free and out and about in Aberdeen. And even before I found my way to something interesting, I spotted something interesting. Actually. I'd wandered past the fairly plain building (pictured right) umpteen times in the last few years and never paid it the slightest notice. The Rosemount Square block of flats is built around a central courtyard and was commended by the Saltire Society for good design a few years after it was completed in 1945. It was actually designed before the war to replace a building destroyed by fire in 1937 but wartime shortages of materials and manpower delayed the building until afterwards. What drew may attention to the building were the figure above the main entrances to the courtyard. There were meant to be three of them representing wind, rain and cold (seem about right for Aberdeen) designed by Thomas Huxley-Jones of Grays School of Art but it was thought that the £500 for all three was a bit much, so in order to save a few pennies we only have wind and rain.

Belmont Street had a bit of a market going where you could get a bit of local produce or in some cases less than local produce (good old Loch Arthur from down our way in Galloway)

Oh yes, and lots of this sort of thing.

Those of you who know me, may realise that I'm not big on all things Christmas, so in order to escape the brass bands and carol singers, I went to the pictures. The choice was "My Afternoons with Margueritte", a rather delightful french film. I can only trust that the subtitles were right but I know that "My Afternoons with Margueritte" is not the french translation of French title, "La Tete en Friche", which after a bit of investigation seems to mean something like "The Fallow Head" - perhaps they didn't think that would attract British audiences. Either way, if you don't mind subtitles, go and see it, it's lovely.

After the pictures, there was still a bit of daylight left as I was  walking past the Marishal College building in Aberdeen. As you can see they're getting a bit of work done. Actually they're getting a lot of work done. Without getting into local politics, the council have acquired the building and have complete gutted the interior and left only the exterior. Now they have started to sandblast the granite and what a stunning difference it makes to the surface.

Compare  a cleaned up bit with an uncleaned bit.

In the evening we were moved to a hotel out by the airport, where a quiet night was had. The airport is miles from anywhere so it marked the last of my wanderings and as it happens we managed to catch the helicopter the next morning anyway. I did have a small stash of unusual teas from earlier.

After a couple of days wandering around in the snow, it's good to get the boots off and a nice cuppa made. Here I am in the hotel room with my back to the curtains so that I wouldn't be deafened.